Animate Projects/Animation Alliance UK

c/o ais London

47-48 Berners Street
London W1T 3NF
animationalliance@me.com
www.animationallianceuk.org
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
statsconsultation@culture.gsi.gov.uk
14 June 2013

Dear DCMS
Classifying and measuring the creative industries:
Consultation on proposed changes
1. Im writing this note from Animate Projects and on behalf of Animation
Alliance UK, which Animate coordinates.
2. Animate has been commissioning and producing animation for over 20
years, initially through a Channel Four/Arts Council England scheme, and
more recently through a range of partnerships, including Jerwood Charitable
Foundation, the National Trust, Channel 4s Random Acts, BFI and the
Wellcome Trust. We work with a broad range of creative talent, including
visual artists and animators working in industry on personal projects.
3. Animation Alliance UK, established in 2011, is a group of independent
animation professionals that exists as a network and focus for sharing
information and discussion, to advocate for the support of independent
animation in the UK, and to lobby for investment in production, training and
archive. Our members work across a very wide range of projects across
cultural and commercial practice and across the breadth of film, visual
arts and the creative industries. animationallianceuk.org/members/
4. Animate, in association with London College of Communication, is currently
undertaking a basic mapping exercise, intended to inform the development
of Accelerate, a professional and practice support programme for creative
animation. accelerateanimation.wordpress.com/about/
Classifying and measuring the creative industries: consultation
5. We very much welcome the consultation. Our concern is that animation is
not part of the current or proposed classification, which means that,
childrens television aside, what animators do is not acknowledged. And as
a consequence of not being counted, as far as current public investment in
development and training, it doesnt count.

Mapping
6. Creative Skillsets 2009 Employment Census gives a figure of 8160
employees and freelancers in the occupational group animators. Apart
from childrens television, the animation sector is under-researched and so
there is little statistical evidence that what we do is of significant cultural and
economic value. Our Accelerate mapping is intended as a start. We
recently conducted a survey that asked animators about the kind of work
they do (commercial, personal), the way they work (freelance, studios,
collectives), and what kind of professional development would like and how
they would like it delivered. We received 324 responses.
7. 55% of respondents said they also worked in industries other than
animation, including film (36%), illustration (31%), graphic design (25%),
museum/gallery (21%), photography (14%) and web design (13%). They
work in music, theatre, education, fashion, writing, publishing and business.
8. Animators work in music videos, advertising, television, childrens television
and gaming. They make independent films for festivals and cinema. They
work on feature films and for gallery exhibition. Animators make work for
digital platforms, working on online projects and content, on interactive
projects, on web/social media and on online content.
9. It is an established workforce, with 51.1% having worked in animation for
over five years, and 37.3% between one and five years. Animators work in
studios, in collectives and freelance. 62.7% of respondents said their work
is a mix of commercial and personal projects.
10. Well be publishing our findings in the summer, along with profiles of 22
companies, ranging from studios employing 30 or more, through to
individual artists.
Classification
11. Animation pervades contemporary culture; however, the development and
the nurturing of our talent base and creativity have become dependent on
the sectors own drive and determination, and this is unsustainable.
12. A strength of the animation sector is how it works between and across
commercial and cultural categories advertising, film, digital, television,
interactive, gallery. But the diversity of creative animation practice, and how
animation is part of many different cultural and commercial fields, may have
contributed to a lack of clarity and recognition.
13. We believe that animation and animators make a substantial and vital
contribution to the creative industries, and that there are strong cultural and
economic reasons to invest in the sectors development.

14. We appreciate that your categories are necessarily broad, but we are
encouraged that you recognise that the current codes do not adequately
separate out industries and occupations.
15. The evidence of animations impact in clear and extensive in our daily lives,
but animation does not figure in your mapping. If the classification of the
creative industries is to appropriately reflect current practice and the
particular re-shaping that has come about through digital, then we believe
the inclusion of animation (in whatever measure or reference) is inevitable.
16. The set of creative industries and occupations that you propose does not
fully accommodate the innovative, shifting, cross-sector practice of
animation, changing models of production, practice and market or an
industry that is no longer neatly compartmentalised. Our fear is that as a
consequence, it becomes invisible to the policymakers, industry,
academics and other users of the statistics.
17. We have written this note in response to your invitation to flag up
weaknesses in the representation of specific sectors.
18. Animation has its own creative and business practice, with its own particular
development and training needs. A classification of the contemporary
creative industries that fails to acknowledge the centrality of animation
creative practice would be fail to reflect how the world actually is.
Yours sincerely
Gary Thomas
Associate Director, Animate Projects
Co-ordinator, Animation Alliance UK
animateprojects.org
animationallianceuk.org